Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses - Essay Example

Analytical Principles Used in Western Feminist Dis Analytical Principles Used in Western Feminist Discourse Introduction According to Chandra, colonization refers to the structural domination, a discursive or political oppression of the heterogeneity of the subject in question. The Western feminist writers tend to come up with feminist discursive writings that discursively colonizes the third world woman. Recently, many of the Western feminist writings have been referring to the third world woman as a monolithic subject of knowledge. A lot of writings theorizing the lives of the third world woman have been produced, which according to Chandra colonize the third world woman. It is this form of scholarship; Chandra has identified this as an indirect form of colonization of the third world woman. This western feminist discourse and the historical perspective of the life of a woman has produced and constructed a third world woman with a distorted image (Mohanty, 1988). This essay discusses the three analytical principles identified by Chandra Mohanty that are used in the western feminist discourse about the third world. The western feminist discourses have used different methodological principles to create a third world woman with a distorted image over the years. The analytical principles applied by the Western feminist discourses include “The strategic location or the situational categorization of women/ women as the category of analysis (women and context of analysis), the methodological universalism and the subject of power and struggle they imply and suggest in their discourse” (Mohanty, 1988). Strategic Location The principle of the strategic location of the third world women as the category of analysis or, we are all sisters in the struggle, is identified by Chandra as being in use by the Western feminist discourse. The Western feminist scholars tend to classify and categorize the third world women in their group with their unique desires and interests. The scholars view these women as a group that shares oppression together as a result of socio-economic and cultural systems (Mohanty, 1988, p. 66). They depict women objects facing the consequences of their history. By the Western feminist scholars discursively classifying the third world women in a group, they imply the women are a vulnerable, powerless, exploited and sexually harassed category of persons. Chandra notes that the Western scholars have labeled the third world women victims of some cultural and socio-economic systems that have rendered them weak and powerless. Thus, their scientific, economic, legal and sociological discourses show how the third world woman has been oppressed (Mohanty, 1988). Chandra analyzes some of the discourses by the Western feminism authors to demonstrate their perspective about the third world woman. They portray the women as victims of male violence as demonstrated by Hosken, a feminist author who condemns the female genital mutilation act that is prevalent in Africa and the Middle East, which is done with the goal of reducing the sexual pleasure and satisfaction of a woman (Mohanty, 1988, p. 66). She concludes that this is controlling the sexuality of women, thus making them remain being dependent and submissive to men. By the author explaining and writing down her discourse about the male domination, she creates a perception that women in the third world are the weaker objects while the men are the superior objects and thus are sexually controlled by men (Mohanty, 1988, p.66). Thus, this creates the notion that women are powerless, and men always rule over them. The Western feminist discourses should be on how to reduce and change the male dominance rather than being biased towards the third world women sisterhood that they perceive as gender-based, which puts women in their category (Mohanty, 1988, p. 67). Furthermore, the western scholars view the third world women as universal dependents with shared needs. This forces the women to regroup to fight against a common need affecting them. For instance, Lindsay a feminist from her analysis claims that all African women are politically and economically dependent and their source of income is prostitution (Mohanty, 1988, p. 67). This discourse generalizes all the African women as helpless and powerless. The description creates gender bias and differences, which depicts the women has dependent beings of their male counterparts who only carry out family roles in the society in which they are lowly regarded for their survival an implication of colonization (Mohanty, 1988, p.67). According to Chandra, the authors should not create the distinction between the men and the women in their writings, which have attached status. Finally, women are viewed as victims of the colonial process by most of the discourses of the western feminists. For instance, Levi-Strauss identified Zambian women as a group affected by a certain form of colonization. This comes about due to the women exchange culture that has been for long time been practiced in Zambia. However, with the coming of Westernization the whole marriage practice changed, and centralized the women as the epi center of marriage practices who follows changes taking place in the marriage (Mohanty, 1988). The above are just some of the explanations that show how women are regarded by the Western feminists discourse principle of categorizing women. Methodological Universalism The principle of methodological universalism shows how men exploit and dominate over women across the society. The scholars depict women colonization using the arithmetic method to show how women are dominated and discriminated in the society (Mohanty, 1988, p. 74). They argue that the wearing of veils by many women in the third world shows the sexual segregation and the control men have over them (Mohanty, 1988, p. 75). This argument generalizes all the women and does not put into consideration the religious or cultural perspectives the veils signify. For instance, the veils in Saudi Arabia and those of Iran vary on cultural and ideology meaning and context. The Iranian women started wearing veils to show solidarity with each other and not because of male domination. This, therefore, shows how the universal view of women by the writers wrongly depicts the exploitation of the women of the third world (Mohanty, 1988). Principle of Subject of Power According to most of the Western feminists writings, women status are assumed to be self-evident since they are enclosed in a group placed within the religious, economic, familiar and legal structures regardless of ethnicity and class (Mohanty, 1988, P. 78). The men, on the other hand, are regarded to be the head and innovators of the various institutions. Women are, therefore, seen as being the competitors of men who aims to counter the influence and dominance of the male. Categorizing the women in a group, creates a power division where the men are seen as powerful while the women are depicted as powerless. When the western feminism authors write about the powerless woman in the third world, this creates the perception that she cannot rise above the perceived positions or limits that have already been structured. Thus, this creates a binary dichotomous structure that renders women as powerless as the men remain to be powerful (Mohanty, 1988, p.79). Therefore, such presumptions, emotionally colonizes the third woman by depicting them as lesser creatures that cannot rise above the pre-conceived hierarchies existing in the society as they create the perception that men are more powerful than women. Parallels between Contemporary Scholarship and Official Colonial Knowledge The contemporary scholarship had some parallels with the official colonial knowledge. The association of pundits, judges and magistrate created the official colonial knowledge. The two shares some ideas and people realized the reasons something was done in a particular way in the colonial era. Before colonization, India was following its culture that was governed by the Brahmanical scriptures. Sati was one such tradition that involved burning of women during their husband’s burial. During the British colonization of India, the colonial knowledge was passed to the Indians who were strictly following the barbaric tradition of burning women by the colonial rulers, missionaries and indigenous elite. According to the Europeans, sati was a brutal and heinous act that served as a tool of oppressing the female gender. They, therefore, abolished sati to ensure that women were accorded their rights (Mani, 1986). For instance, Mani (1986) argues that, “The civilizing mission of colonization was thus seen to lie in protecting the "weak" against the "artful," in giving back to the natives the truths of their own "little read and less understood Shaster" (Mani, 1986, p. 127). On the other hand, the contemporary scholarship knowledge recognizes that women rights are still being violated in the modern world. Acts such as domestic violence and women battering are prevalent in the modern societies. Furthermore, according to the contemporary scholarships, women are still described by many authors as oppressed and dominated by the male gender. On the other hand, the official colonial knowledge noted the same challenges with women that were caused by the male gender. For instance, Lata Mani describes the situation where a widow was forced into the pyre and set ablaze by the crowd and the pundits. Some of the women tended to resist and were portrayed as heroes while those who conceded were considered as beaten down, coerced and manipulated by men. This showed the colonial knowledge had impacted some form of enlightenment on pundits forcing them to support the abolishment of sati to some extent (Mani, 1986). Lata Mani describes pundits as ignorant because they could not explain the questions posed by the colonial officials regarding the execution of women by burning. The scripture had set conditions for not burning all the women. For instance, the pregnant women, women with infants or under age of puberty were not to be cremated (Mani, 1986). The colonial officials continued to intensify their questioning to ensure the pundits explained in detail why they were practiced sati. They in return used the same knowledge they gathered to show the Indians how inappropriate sati was, and it was worth being abolished (Mani, 1986). This official colonial knowledge managed to eradicate the practice of sati in a systematic way that enabled the pundits, and other people get some meaning. This shares the same idea with the contemporary scholarship where many authors explain why a particular tradition should be dropped instead of being dictated. For instance, lately there have been so many scholars expressing their ideas on the need to end practices such as female genital mutilation. Conclusion Ultimately, contemporary scholarship and the official colonial knowledge have some similarities since they contain ideas that focus on the same subject. According to Lata Mani, the ideas the official colonial knowledge propagated such as the reduction of women oppression and recognizing their human rights, coexist with the contemporary scholarship as evident in the recent writings by authors. Discussions about the human rights of women have been going all over the world. The subjects of women empowerment have dominated the writings of many authors recently mainly focusing the women in Asia, Middle East and the third world countries. Asia could still be practicing some of its traditions which were against women until the colonial rulers intervened and shared their knowledge on such practices. References Mani, L. (1987). Contentious traditions: The debate on sati in colonial India. Cultural Critique, (7), 119–156. Mohanty, C. T. (1988). Under Western eyes: Feminist scholarship and colonial discourses. Feminist Review, (30), 61–88. Read More